http://www.cnn.com/US/9512/budget/12-18/The administration has promised that Social Security and Medicare checks will be paid on time. However, if the second shutdown isn't over by Thursday morning, veterans' benefit checks for more than 3.3 million people would be delayed, said Ken McKinnon, spokesman for the Veterans' Affairs Department. The checks are supposed to be mailed December 29, but the department has neither the money nor the personnel to process them.
Passports also may not get processed, but as in November, postal service will not be affected and vital workers in public health and safety will stay on the job. The six-day closure that ended on November 19 was the longest in history and cost the government an estimated $750 million, more than half of it in retroactive salaries to workers who were sent home.
Sen. John Breaux, D-Louisiana, a member of the Finance Committee, predicted Monday the Senate would pass a temporary measure to keep the government in business through the end of the week while negotiators continue working. "I think it's real possible it'll happen today," he said. But it was not clear whether the House would approve such a measure.
But there's no telling whether it would be handled the same this time around. I found a fascinating (well, to me, since I'm a state employee and find civil service stuff fascinating) history of Social Security Admin which includes details of the effects of the massive furloughs and interruptions of day-to-day operations--many people still got their guaranteed funds, but it wasn't pretty:
https://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/ssa/ssa2000chapter5.html The four-day furlough severely impacted SSA’s ability to provide the quality service that the American people expect. The following activities are examples of basic services that were curtailed or denied during the November shutdown:
· About 112,000 claims for retirement and disability benefits were not taken (about 28,000 per day);
· About 212,000 applications for Social Security numbers were not taken (about 53,000 per day);
· About 800,000 callers were denied service on SSA’s 800 number (about 200,000 per day); and,
· About 5,000 previously scheduled hearings were canceled and decisions related to another 7,000 hearings that had already taken place were not written.
The second shutdown was the longest in history and presented new challenges to Agency management. When the threat of a second shutdown surfaced, SSA determined that the trust funds and benefit programs could not tolerate another interruption of claims-taking activities. Based on the experience during the November lapse in appropriations and the loss of four full days of production time, any further interruption in service would have a devastating long-term impact on SSA’s ability to process Social Security, SSI and Black Lung claims. The Agency was still attempting to recover from the effects of the November furlough. Therefore, employees in direct service positions would remain operational, while staff support employees would be furloughed. When the partial shutdown began December 16, 1995, about 55,000 Agency employees, most of whom processed claims and/or provided direct public service, were told to report for work. A total of approximately 11,000 staff employees remained furloughed.
I'm absolutely not being dismissive of fears that a shut-down (especially when today's current crop of wingdings include people who can't even admit Unemployment is Constitutional) will negatively impact millions. But even the most subnormal, humanity-hating, Atlas-Faps, brain-washed, Reagan-worshipping, furry-palmed, cross-toting, knuckle-dragging, shallow-assed, slope-skulled, legume-accounting, floccinaucinihilipililificating, slack-jawed arrogant Teatard should know not to mess with Mee-maws. Or that whole party really will find itself up Shit Creek.
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